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Saturday, 2 September 2017

UKIP Far-Right Meet-Up Cancelled

The youth wing of that motley convocation of saloon bar propper-uppers otherwise known as UKIP - Young Independence - had decided, for reasons known only to themselves, to extend an invitation to Austrian far-right Génération Identitaire founder Martin Sellner, to speak at their gathering in Sheffield. Sellner had been involved in the abortive mission of the C-Star to cruise the Mediterranean and send migrants back somewhere.

The Hilton Sheffield Hotel at Victoria Quays would be hosting not only a Nazi sympathiser - Sellner has significant previous in this area - but also UKIP leadership candidate Anne Marie Waters, former Pegida UK leader, and a virulent Islamophobe. The Sheffield anti-fascist network was one of the groups picking up on the proposed meeting: they urged followers to contact the Hilton Sheffield and make their feelings politely known.

And so it came to pass that the Sheffield Starbrought good news: the YI conference, which was to have taken place today, is no more, at least not at the Hilton Sheffield. “The Hilton Hotel on Victoria Quays near Sheffield city centre decided to axe UKIP's Young Independence event after pressure from city councillors opposition activists. Sheffield councillors Jack Scott and Ben Curran penned a letters to the hotel this week urging bosses to cancel Saturday's conference”, they told readers.

The Kippers have, predictably, blamed the rotten lefties: “Unfortunately, the Hard Left ‘Stand Up to Racism’ organisation planned a protest at the hotel and has sent a large amount of abusive and threatening emails to Hilton Hotel staff”. What was also unfortunate was that “Regretfully, the Far Left also caught on that we would be holding a boat party (The #Revolutions Cruise) after the conference”. That’s been cancelled, too.

Even more unfortunately, “The YI Executive Council was working around the clock to secure a new venue for the conference, and we obtained a second venue, the Novotel, which regretfully also cancelled our booking”, although, according to theStar, “The event was then booked, on a smaller scale but with the same speakers, at The Bessemer, on Leopold Street”. The result was the same, though: “But this morning pub bosses announced that the event had again been cancelled”.

She's not speaking, either

So YI was reduced to trying to stage the event in Barnsley, some 16 miles away. Sadly, “After securing a venue in nearby Barnsley early this morning, only three of [the] Leadership candidates and / or UKIP speakers confirmed their attendance (two confirmed they would not attend, and one confirmed they would only attend under certain conditions, objecting to us inviting Mr Martin Sellner)”. Ah well, how sad, never mind.

The Kippers claim that their right to free speech is under attack. It is not. They are free to espouse whatever views they wish, and speak about them freely. Those of opposing view are also free to voice their opinions. Once again the far right is left moaning about the mythical “hard left”, while remaining tone-deaf to its propensity to cosy up to Nazi sympathisers and Islamophobes.

The Kippers ended up being run out of Sheffield. Just rejoice at that news.